In everyday German, an Egge is a harrow, the spiked frame a farmer drags across a plowed field. Across northern Germany, though, the same word is also an old Low German name for a long ridge. The Eggegebirge takes its name from that second meaning, and the shape explains why.
The ridge runs for about 50 km (31 mi), from Horn-Bad Meinberg in the north to the valley of the Diemel in the south. It rises gently from the west and drops steeply to the east, where cliffs and boulder fields line the slope. Along the crest it averages about 400 m (1,312 ft).
That crest is a watershed, too. Most streams on the east side end up in the Weser, while nearly everything on the west side drains through the Lippe into the Rhine. Farther west, the plateau around Paderborn is the largest karst landscape in Westphalia, with sinkholes where streams disappear into the ground.
Two Summits and an Old Border
The highest point sits at the northern end, on the Velmerstot. The mountain has two summits, and each carries the name of a former state. The Preußischer Velmerstot (Prussian Velmerstot) reaches 468 m (1,535 ft), while the Lippischer Velmerstot (Lippe Velmerstot) stops at 441 m (1,447 ft). Both hilltops were border country between Prussia and Lippe.
Centuries of grazing turned both summits into heath. A lookout tower on the Prussian summit takes in the Teutoburg Forest and the Weserbergland. On clear days, the view reaches all the way to the Sauerland.
Just north of here, the Eggegebirge meets the Teutoburg Forest. Geographers still disagree whether the seam runs through the Silberbachtal or near the Externsteine. Until the seventeenth century, nobody had to decide, because both ranges shared one name, the Osning.
Old Ramparts and an Expensive Bridge
Above Bad Driburg, the ruins of the Iburg sit on a spur of the ridge. A castle here was first mentioned in 753, during the Frankish wars against the Saxons. Charlemagne is said to have founded a church on the hill. The bishops of Paderborn later built it into a fortress, which fell into ruin in the fifteenth century.